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The government should take action over the cancer risk from processed meats like bacon and ham, campaigners have demanded.

A senior food scientist and top NHS doctor have joined politicians to sign a joint statement urging better regulation, and an awareness campaign similar to those we’ve seen with sugar and fatty foods.

They want cancer-causing chemicals used in the preserving process to be banned, saying in years to come we will look back at the meat industry like the tobacco industry.

Bacon causes cancer (Picture: Getty)

In the statement, they cited ‘a growing consensus of scientific opinion’ that nitrites in processed meats result in the production of carcinogenic nitrosamines which are believed to be responsible for bowel cancer.

A 2015 report by the World Health Organisation classed processed meats as a group one carcinogen which could cause an additional 34,000 worldwide cancer deaths a year. New analysis suggests that this could equate to 6,600 bowel cancer cases in the UK annually.

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Senior doctors and nutritionists joined Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson in making a call for action.

‘We must work together to raise awareness of their risks’ (Picture: Getty)

‘A united and active front is needed from policy-makers, the food industry and the cancer-care community,’ they said.

‘We must work together to raise awareness of their risks and encourage the much wider use of nitrite-free alternatives that are safer and can reduce the number of cancer cases.’

Senior cardiologist Aseem Malhotra said the failure to act on evidence of the harm from nitrites risked comparisons with the tobacco industry’s past refusal to accept the dangers posed by cigarettes.

‘Nitrites are used to cure bacon and ham, but when the meat is cooked and ingested by humans they create nitrosamines,’ he said. ‘When it comes to nitrosamines, there are no ifs, nor buts; they are carcinogenic.

‘Government action to remove nitrites from processed meats should not be far away.’ (Picture: Getty)

‘Yet, despite these facts, the vast majority of bacon on sale today still contains these dangerous carcinogens. Not only this, reminiscent of the tobacco industry’s stance in the 1990s, some of those in the business of making and regulating food continue to claim that health risks from nitrite-cured meat are negligible. The evidence says otherwise.

‘Government action to remove nitrites from processed meats should not be far away. Nor can a day of reckoning for those who continue to dispute the incontrovertible facts.’

Dr Malhotra rejected industry claims that nitrites are essential to the preservation of processed meats, pointing to the elimination of the chemicals from Parma ham production and the use of alternative natural processes by producers including Nestle in France and Finnebrogue in the UK.

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Another signatory to the statement, former Labour environment spokeswoman Kerry McCarthy, urged the Government to ‘look closely at what it can be doing to raise awareness of the risks from these chemicals and persuade the food industry to make its bacon and ham safer’.

She added: ‘These chemicals do not have to be in our food – and in years to come I am sure we will look back in disbelief that we allowed their use for so long.’